Full fact – thank you

This week 38 Degrees members dug deep in our pockets and helped fund Full Fact an independent fact checking organisation who will be keeping an eye out for dodgy claims and half truths this election. The team at Full Fact wanted to write back to say thank-you.

Here’s the letter they sent:

Thank you so much for your generosity.

Five years ago, a small group of friends sat in the pub thinking that something like Full Fact could be important. That what we all need is an independent voice that champions the facts – just the facts. We wanted to offer a route out of the choice between blind cynicism and blind trust – to give you the tools to make up your own mind.

What’s happened since is extraordinary: corrections columns introduced to the biggest UK newspapers; Ministers stopped from using unpublished statistics — as well as all the stories that never were, stopped in their tracks before they reached your computer screen or radio because they didn’t stack up.

We’re a small team on a big mission; we regularly punch above our weight but we needed help – and this weekend we got it. The donations we’ve received from 38 Degrees members have been overwhelming. We were blown away by the messages of support, both in donations and kind words that were sent our way.

Your donation means that we can take our factchecking to a new level. It means we can factcheck at greater volume and depth, it means we can create automated factchecking tools, it means we can rent a space for our 18 hour a day factchecking centre – which will be crucial once we’re joined by our volunteers and extra election staff.

We want this election to be the first where factchecking plays a crucial role.

From everyone here at Full Fact; thank you.

We’re going to do everything we possibly can to make you proud.

Thank you from the team: Amy, CJ, Hugh, Joseph, Laura, Matthew, Mevan, Phoebe, Poppy, Sam and Will.